"At the very top of my mind is the safety of all
Americans serving in Iraq. I track this extremely closely. Over the
course of this year, we have had on average zero to three attacks a week
on the overall US presence. Almost entirely 170 mm rockets from the
Naqshbandia group which is the rememnants of the Ba'athists Party.
Fortunately, we've had no casualties from those attacks," declared Brett
McGurk testifying to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee yesterday.
Did the press rush to report that the US was still under attack in
Iraq? Nope. Senator Robest Casey was the Acting Committee Chair at the
hearing (filling in for Senator John Kerry). We covered some of this yesterday. We'll cover some today and try to wrap it up tomorrow.

What
once had been labeled America's most important foreign policy issue,
what still is the world's largest embassy, what was a crusade that
killed thousands of Americans and hundreds of thousands Iraqis, a failed
policy that is still sending waves through the volatile Middle East, is
now so unimportant that it is lopped together with the Maldives as
another bit of perfunctory business for the Senate to rap out before
summer recess.

Nobody cares anymore.

It really did seem that way in the hearing.

McGurk,
responding to questions by Senator Tom Udall, began discussing groups
in Iraq he saw as a problem. He started with al Qaeda in Iraq and this
was interesting. al Qaeda in Iraq (also known as al Qaeda in
Mesopotamia) was created by the Iraq War. Prior to 2003, there was no
al Qaeda presence in Iraq. It is largely homegrown.

Like
too many people, McGurk used "al Qaeda in Iraq" as a catch all for any
attack taking place in Iraq. This did not speak to an awareness. That
wasn't his biggest problem when discussing al Qaeda in Iraq.

McGurk
declared that they were striking at a similar rate in Iraq this year as
they had last year. That is remains a significant threat.

CIA
Director Leon Panetta: Senator, I have to tell you, there are a
thousand al Qaeda that are still in Iraq. We saw the attack that was
made just the other day. It too continues to be a fragile situation.
And I believe that uh we-we should take whatever steps are necessary to
make sure that we protect whatever progress we've made there.

It
was treated as big news in real time. Missy Ryan (Reuters) live
Tweeted the hearing and to her this was significant (more so than
anything else) resulting in many Tweets including the following:

So
by the summer of 2011, per the current Secretary of Defense, testifying
before Congress, there were less than 1,000 al Qaeda in Iraq . . . in
Iraq. That alone is troublesome considering McGurk's testimony.

Now
what about the fact that most observers have declared that the bulk of
the (small) al Qaeda in Iraq had gone on to Syria due to the turmoil
there? Sahar Issa (McClatchy Newspapers) reported in February of this year:

The
departure of al Qaida-affiliated fighters from Iraq to join the
rebellion against Syrian President Bashar Assad in Syria has had one
benefit, Iraqi officials say:

[. . .]

Iraqi
officials declined to provide precise figures for the drop-off or to
estimate how many al Qaida-affiliated fighters have left the country for
Syria. But the impact of the departure, they said, has been especially
apparent in Ninewah province, which borders Syria and has long been the
scene of some of al Qaida in Iraq's most violent bombings and
assassinations.

He
also asserted, "In terms of internal security and the Iraqis being able
to secure their country, they're not doing a bad job. Uh, they secure
the capital to host the Arab League Summit, they secured the capital to
host the P5+1 talks. That would have been unheard of three to five
years ago. So they're doing very good internal security."

That's
such a bold faced lie. Baghdad's never had a big problem with bombings
or shootings if they went into crackdown mode. Shortly after Nouri
first became prime minister, fighters almost breached the Green Zone.
What followed was Nouri's first crackdown.

So
doing the same for the summit and +1 was nothing. It's equally true
that it's a lie that Iraq did that. Take the Arab League Summit. When
US President Barack Obama goes somewhere he goes with his own security
detail. Do you really think that doesn't happen with other countries'
leaders as well? It does happen. And just as the Secret Service
preceeds a US president to any city days ahead of time to secure the
visit, the same thing happened there. Iraq got a ton of help from Arab
countries for the Summit and from the west and Iran for the P5+1.

In
the 2010 parliamentary elections, violence within Baghdad was very
minimal. And during the summit, there were mortar attacks on the Green
Zone.

Is McGurk unaware of that? Is he
unaware that any foreign leader has a security detail? He gave no
indication that he was. And the elected officials had no interest in
asking.

They had no interest in the 2008 Baghdad e-mails (we covered them in "Iraq snapshot" and "'Blue Balls' McGurk faces Senate Foreign Relations..." and "Iraq snapshot") which document McGurk -- who was married -- in a sexual relationship with Wall St. Journal
reporter Gina Chon -- a relationship he attempts to conceal from the
then-US Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker. Gina Chon is now the second
wife so will she be accompanying him to Iraq? I'll give her the same
advice I gave Elizabeth Edwards in 2002, "Put him on a leash, a very
short one." Just as Mr. Grabby Hands was notorious for coming on to
women and sleeping around, Chon should realize the man who cheated on
wife number one while he was in Iraq will likely repeat the act. I have
no interest in Chon's e-mail side of the conversation. But I will
offer that warning.

The
Committee also tended to avoid the issue that has gripped Iraq for over
a year now: the political crisis. Senator Lugar tip-toed up to it as
his first round of questioning was coming to a close.

Ranking
Member Richard Lugar: Let me ask, how are you going to advise Prime
Minister Maliki under the current circumstances in which where he's not
getting along well with the opposition to say the least and the Kurds
are drifting off by themselves? What are the challenges for our
diplomacy here?

Brett
McGurk: Thank you, Senator. It's a really critically, critically
important point. I have worked with Prime Minister Maliki for a number
of years and all the Iraqi leaders and I've worked with him in his
capacity as the prime minister. As I said in my written statement, I
would try to focus now on dealing with the Iraqis in an institutional
way. So dealing with Malliki as the prime minister now, if there was a
new prime minister tomorrow, I would have the same close working
relationship with him. I've worked with four Speakers of the
Parliament, for example. You need to focus on the institution. When
you're in Iraq and dealing with all sides, there are different
narratives to the political proces. The government that was put in
place in 2010, as you know, took eight months to put in place. When it
finally came together, it represents 98% of the Council of
Representatives.

Let's stop him for a
moment. What is "it"? He's referring to the Cabinet. The Council of
Representatives is the Parliament and he clearly doesn't see them as the
government. He sees the Cabinet as the government and is saying the
Cabinet represents 98% of the Parliament. He's referring to the various
blocs in the Parliament.

Brett
McGurk: They're represented in the Cabinet. That naturally leads to a
lot of inefficienies, a lot of rivalries, a lot of intrigue and that is
certainly going on now. Uhm, Maliki will say that his opposition
figures who are in his Cabinet won't share responsibility for
governing. The opposition figures say Maliki is consolidating power.
They're all right. And we need to work with all of them to live up to
their prior agreements and to work within the Constitutional system to
change the process. You mentioned the Kurds and this is critically
important and I would plan to visit the Kurdistan Region as much as
possible. I'd like to be up there, if I'm confirmed, at least once a
week because it's the personal interaction between the ambassador and
the Iraqi leaders that's so important for keeping everything stable and
for bridging areas of disagreement. The Kurds are having some
difficulties with the Baghdad government right now, the Baghdad
government's having difficulties with the Kurds. The real rivalry is
[KRG President] Massoud Barzani and Prime Minister Maliki. Uh, we have
to play an important role in mediating that effort. Uh, I would just
leave it at there's a Constitutional system in place now. This is the
third Iraqi government, the second Parliament, The Iraqis are going to
fight through their politics under the Constitutional rules they
themselves have devised. We cannot direct outcomes through that
process. When we try to do that, the unintended consequences are
quite enormous. But we can help bridge differences. We can mediate back
and forth and be constantly, actively engaged and that's what I intend
to do if I'm confirmed.

Well if Iraq
consisted solely of the Nouri and his supporters on the one hand and the
Kurds on the other hand, that answer might be a good one. Lugar didn't
notice and didn't care. He just gaped at McGurk in slack-jawed wonder,
making cow eyes at him.